Film Festival for Children and Youth is expanding its pitching platform for its second iteration. Six projects were selected this year, up from the three that took part during its inaugural program. The expansion is part of SIFF’s effort to build a pathway for emerging filmmakers beyond training and exhibition.
As festival director Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi told Variety ahead of this year’s edition, learning how to make a film is only part of the equation, “getting that film produced and seen is a completely different challenge.” This year’s projects bring together filmmakers from across the Arab world and diaspora, with the principal goal of finding financing and production partners from Sharjah and beyond. Here are the six short film projects presented at this year’s pitching sessions: “The Black Hole”(Mike Mo Elsherif, U.S. Produced by JohnBen Lacy) Palestinian-American filmmaker Mike Mo Elsherif’s “The Black Hole” follows a Gazan refugee living in the U.S. who develops a mysterious illness as he searches for answers about his family in Gaza.
El Sherif describes the film as a “visceral exploration of the complex ways in which our bodies store and process trauma throughout our lives, highlighting the deep connection between physical sensations and emotional experiences.” The film is part of a trilogy of shorts. The first installment, “Maqluba,” screens in the Arabic short films competition at SIFF following stops at Woodstock, BlackStar and El Gouna, while “Goodbye Habibi,” now in post-production, was financed by FilmLab Palestine, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the Doha Film Institute and the Kentucky Arts Council. Currently in the financing stage, the project was developed through screenwriting lab The Front Porch Lab, under Louisville-based nonprofit 502 film, as well as The New Harmony Project, a writing organization.
Partially privately financed, “The Black Hole” is seeking further funding in Sharjah ahead of a winter 2027 shoot in Louisville, Kentucky. Elsherif describes the project as “a psychological study of a Palestinian grappling with the heartbreak and dehumanization he witnesses every day,” and a search for healing amid the devastation of his homeland. Her father gives her a chick that she raises into a hen with which she grows deeply attached, only for it to suddenly disappear one day.
The film grew from a story Boukhari’s mother told him as a child, which he had largely forgotten until his young nephew recounted it years later at a family gathering. Currently in production, the independently-produced UAE project has been self-financed and is seeking funding to complete post-production, particularly in music, sound design, sound effects and sound recording. Boukhari has also signed Tunisian co-producer Alaeddin Abou Taleb of Key Production Films, whose credits include the Tanit d’Or-winning stop-motion short “Diaspora” at the Carthage Film Festival.
Completion is planned by the end of 2026. Illustrator Nadia Zilanova, whose international work includes commissions for the New York Times and publishing houses, recently joined the project to create and color the film’s backgrounds “in a distinctive visual style.” UAE-based filmmaker Saleh Mohammed’s “The Last Call” begins with an unexpected phone call from a number connected to a forgotten memory, sending its protagonist on an emotional journey through the past, unresolved feelings and unanswered questions. Mohammed says the film explores “the things we leave unsaid and the moments we fail to appreciate until they are gone.” The director described the visual approach of his film as “restrained,” allowing the film to reflect “on how a single moment can change a life and how we sometimes recognize the value of someone’s presence only after they are gone.” The screenplay is complete and the project is in pre-production, with location scouting underway and casting and crew assembly next.
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